"I love the improvements - great job!!" BarbaraUSA"Fabulous. More features than I probably will be able to use in a long
while."Brian
KurtzTaylor,
MI"Fantastic! This is a vast improvement over the original
version." Brenda
HarnessUS"Blown away by the incredible features." Woody
LongacreTempe AZ,
USA"Amazing! I LOVE it!"

Colin GreenSydney, Australia"Great improvement of a superb product" Ed
JacksonWoking,
UK"Very impressive! I have been using the SBI site builder, which in itself is
an impressive tool. After seeing the new version of XsitePro though, I can honestly say that it is
second to none, in terms of functionality and features." Cesar
CamposSydney,
Australia"Absolutely amazing! I thought I'd seen the "BEST" website building software
in XSitePro v1 - version 2 just takes website building and developing to a whole new level. Sheer
brilliance!" Alan
HowellsStoke on Trent,
UK"EXCELLENT" DeannaWisconsin, USA"It looks awesome. The best just got better." SimonWiltshire, UK"WOW!!!" Judie
Brown
Washington, USA"I can hardly breathe! There is SO much stuff. I'm choking with
excitement!" Harold
Jaynes
Washington DC"WOW! FAR-OUT! GREAT! TREMENDOUS! This is coming from a web developer, not a
novice! I have so many clients that I have put on hold - waiting for the added features. These
features will save me so much time which will add revenue in my pockets...It's like going from the
horse and buggy to a Ferrari!" Betsy
ParsonsVirginia,
USA"Fantastic!" Andrea
Wilson
Vancouver, Canada"Wow...so many new, exciting and upgraded features this is going to make
website building a really fun project." Connie
UprightVirginia"I think it is a really powerful piece of software ... I am an experienced
marketer, as well as a web designer with FrontPage, DreamWeaver CS-3 and others. You guys have done
it again!" Ettione
StuckeyUSA"Superb improvement on an already excellent tool." James
MitchellUnited
Kingdom"Beyond all
expectations!"
Shush AryaUK"WOW! WOW! WOW! There seems to be everything that anyone will need to create
great content sites. And the easy tools to put video, ssn, rss feeds, and right now my mind is
swimming in awe."Steven R Shover Sr
Texas, USA

Paul Smithson - 17th November 2008Building a list is relatively easy, but
building a quality list that people will eagerly subscribe to,
and stay subscribed to, is something different. In order
to keep your subscribers, you need to develop a newsletter or
mailing format that offers readers real content and real
value.

If your newsletter is something people
would pay to receive, then they’re sure to stick around for a
while. They’ll also be much more receptive to buying
anything you recommend, and they’ll even be willing to refer
more subscribers to you.

It’s vital that you give your subscribers
quality content. So many people just blast out ad after
ad to their list, with absolutely no regard for what their
readers want. They don’t have their readers’ best
interests at heart. This is not a wise path to tread as you
will slowly kill your list both in terms of the number of
subscribers and the overall
responsiveness.

In order to make sure your newsletter is
actually read, you need to provide quality content on a regular
basis. This means sending out a newsletter fairly often - at
least once a month.

The more often you provide great content,
the more your name will stick in the minds of your
readers. Once people realize the quality of the content
you send, they’ll start opening your emails more often.
Of course, if you send messages out too often, people will
unsubscribe. It’s recommended that you not send out more
than three to five messages per week, and that is an absolute
maximum. Depending on the topic you are mailing about you could
find that even three to five mailings a month is too
much.

Of course, there are always exceptions. If
you are offering a daily business newsletter then you would
obviously have to mail daily, but anyone subscribing to a daily
newsletter would expect to be receiving it each day and so
wouldn’t be annoyed and such a regular mailing
schedule.

So, once you’ve got people to join your
list how do you keep them interested so that you maximize the
chance of your mails being opened and read, whilst at the same
time minimizing the number of people who
unsubscribe?

There’s one technique that has been used
incredibly effectively by many of the leading online marketers
and that is …

Get personal!

Build rapport with your readers by
providing them with personal information and anecdotes. The
more your readers feel like they know you personally, the more
they’ll trust your opinions, and the more likely they will be
to respond to your offerings and
recommendations.

But getting personal is much more than just
telling them about what’s happening in your life - much, much
more. Although adding a personal touch to your mailings is a
good thing, the truth is that unless you’re a famous actor or
rock star the chances are that your readers are much more
interested in the meat of your newsletter. They might get
a chuckle out of hearing about your latest funny encounter on
the subway, but that isn’t what they subscribed for. So,
whenever you give them a personal story, try tying it in with
some related content.

Nearly every story can be worded in such a
way that it has a hook that relates to your subject in some
way. Get creative! By tying in personal anecdotes
to your content, you’ll build a base of readers that not only
love your content, but really like
you.

When you’re going to send an ad out to your
list, you should consider offering some truly exceptional
content that is related to the product. If you’re
promoting a product about using AdWords, why not provide your
readers will several of your best AdWords tips in the same
email? It’s a case of give and take. If all you are doing is
taking (i.e. expecting them to part with their hard earned
money) then you need to be giving too. This can be in the form
of quality content or well researched recommendations. If
you’re just recommending something so you can earn a quick
buck, then think twice.

Getting personal is a two way street. It
isn’t all about you telling them about your life, it’s about
you going out of your way to meet the needs of the reader, not
just once, but time and time again. If you can do that you will
have a list of subscribers who are likely to be with you for
many years to come.

About Paul Smithson -
Paul Smithson is the founder of Intellimon and the driving
force behind the best-selling XSitePro web site development
tool. Since graduating in Business Strategy and Direct
Marketing from two of Europe’s leading business schools, Paul
has set up five multi-million dollar companies, one of which is
now owned by the BBC. His areas of expertise include business
strategy, e-commerce, on-line and off-line marketing, software
development, and maximizing the potential of on-line
businesses.

For more information about
this, and many other Internet Marketing-related
topics, visit Paul Smithson's site,
www.xsitepro.com.